MJ Gonzales│ExecutiveChronicles.com
A lot of types entrepreneur have been emerging like technopreneur, mompreneur and solopreneur. The latter is the new term for many, but nevertheless the people who belong in this category started even before they realize they’re already into business. They might be freelancers who couldn’t work with bosses or they fired their employers so they can charge in their own career.
It’s easy to name yourself as solopreneur and there’s sense of pride if people acknowledge your effort. However being solopreneur in every angle is hard and it entails great amount of endurance before you reap success. First and foremost, they’re doing everything own their own from conceptualizing to marketing to production to selling products. Thus, they’re instances people around doesn’t take them seriously as entrepreneurs or they’re themselves don’t recognize their status.
“Believe it or not, being a solopreneur is actually much more common than you would expect. Many people who work as independent contractors establish themselves as a business and that makes them solopreneurs. As your business begins to grow and you start to build a bit of capital, you may start thinking about being a solopreneur versus entrepreneur. Having a few employees would make you an entrepreneur, but that also means your expenses will go up and your take-home will go down. As a solopreneur you’re doing all the work, but you’re keeping all the profits,” Loren Ridinger, Senior Vice President of Internet retailing giants marketamerica.com and SHOP.COM, explained on her blog.
In some cases solopreneurs become who they are, not only because of their ambitions to go solo, but also because of their motivations. Some of them are pushed to earn a living because they were fired from jobs or couldn’t find decent employments. They might seek self-employment deals first then eventually discover the great business opportunities along the way.
Advantages of Solopreneurs
- Earnings/ Profits is almost boundless– with regular full time employment, more or less you already know what to expect every payday unless you did some overtimes or lots of under time. With solopreneurs you can double or triple your earnings especially if you have multiple streams of income.
- Job and financial security – job contracts settle the issues of compensation packages and employment status. But with or without financial crisis, employers have powers to fire any of their workers if they want to. Jacob Morgan, author of The Future of Work, shared that in fact around the globe “job security is no longer relevant.”
“Smart solopreneurs work for a diversity of clients, not just one. This means that unlike full-time employees, you can’t be laid off and lose your entire income all at once. And while the loss of a client can certainly make a dent in your earnings, finding new business is a quicker and easier process than finding a full-time job. So there’s an argument to be made that solopreneurs have more income stability, not less than their full-time employed counterparts,” Minda Zetlin, co-author of The Geek Gap: Why Business and Technology Professionals Don’t Understand Each Other, commented on her article on INC.
- In control of time – one reason why many mothers prepare to be called WAHM (work at home moms) is because in freelancing or solopreneurship they can have more time with their families. This also applies for singles who think being self-employed can give them extra time to do the things they like without difficulties.
Risks in Doing Solopreneurship
Despite of the many perks of being solopreneur, there are suggestions that people shouldn’t join in the bandwagon. In a report in Entrepreneur, being this type of businessman is impractical if what you want is financial security and fulfilling career.
- Welcome to the world of Isolation – If working and living in abroad will make you experience homesickness, working solo in your home or store will make you feel outcast. For outgoing individuals who like to be with people most of the time, solopreneurship is not a good idea. It also depressing knowing your transactions and interactions may exist only virtually.
- Haggle with your Time – if you have so many time to spend, that’ a problem because that means you don’t have something to work on. On the other hand, if you have clients and lots of jobs to do you feel like you always run of time. This is a good problem actually, but if you can’t handle it wisely you’ll lose profits in the end or your health suffers.
- You look like powerless superhuman – Okay you know marketing, selling, writing, and other essential portions of your business. But there’s only one problem, you can’t do everything at the same time.
“If you’re a solopreneur, you’ll drive yourself crazy striving towards perfectionist ideals of “enough”. You’ll massively overestimate what you’re capable of in a day. Then you’ll almost kill yourself trying to get there,” Peter Shallard, business psychology expert and therapist, wrote on his website. “Every solopreneur stumbles into this trap, without fail. If you think you’re somehow different, you’re being hopelessly naïve.”
